Which to take Malic or Reaper?

This has been quit a heated discussion on the Cryx forms (http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?80265-Why-should-I-take-Reaper-if-I-have-Malice) when a new players to the undead army asked “Which is better Malice or Reaper?” I would say it was not long after those words left the keyboard and traveled into cyber space to only start a spark of a revolution amongst the cryx players like a feeding frenzy with sharks and a bloody bascket of tuna.

But this dose beg the question dose it not? Which IS better? Well on the outside you think there the same jack one being more points but pushing a higher RAT / POW on harpoon being Malice and the other one only getting reach as the trade off…

That is the great thing about Mathew Wilson, Chief Creative Officer at Privateer Press, who purposely generate tones of models but no two are the same. Sure due to blaring weaknesses and things you know that other people will bring across the board there are obviously models that are better choices but that is not to say you can promise that the guy across the board is going to DO exactly what you think or want him to do. The answer is neither folks and I am going to tell you why.

So lets start with Malice:

This bad boy came out with the Wrath expansion but do to some lacked information on the Cryx forms this model all ready gained popularity way before the release of Wrath. Cryx loves board control in so many ways weather its them not letting you move some ware or forcing there enemy out of some one ellses hidy hole. Here is the break down folks.

Armor

The armor of Malice goes up as the more sole he stacks allowing you to push up to a chance of 20 ARM. This is the awesome threshold for us to get to and something that Kahdor take for granite way to much. If you don’t know what I am talking about try taking a Slayer up agents something and see what happens to your poor model. Sense you start with one soul you are putting yourself to ARM 18.

Higher chance to pull the drag

Malice brings the two thing that Reaper is lacking in there biggest trick and that is drag. With drag your threat range goes from a possible 9’ (Malice: Charge + SPD 6) or 11’ (Reaper: Charge + Reach + SPD6) to 14” which even gives Cygnar a run for there money. Higher RAT also helps as we are now at 7 instead of the low brand of 5. You know what they say “Rat 5 is just enough to hit the broad side of a kahdor Jack.” The last thing that helps seal the deal with the drag trick is a POW of 14 instead of 12. This really helps to make sure your going to get the drag off. The reaper is only RAT 5 and POW 12… You are supposed to boost once on the hit or damage but with the reaper I find I am doing both ALL.THE.TIME. to pull off the darn drag =(

Possession

Aww the glory of Possession and the BEST part is that you start with a soul right off the bat. The only problem you will find is that first you need to hit your target but go go MAT 7 right? And then you have to spend said soul effectively going back to ARM 17 and need to be ok with that. The good thing is that you can move the model with its back turned to your waiting Wither Shadow Combine. This is known as the dark industry trick.

Step 1) Find juicy target 14” away from Malice that is a jack with a working cortex

Step 2) Drag said jack also boost damage if you can any bit you hurt the jack easier the combine kill will work.

Step 3) Hit jack and posses it once again you may want to boost this one to put some more damage on it

Step 4) Have jack advance and spin its back to Wither Shadow Combine say hello to FREE seethe with 3 “weapon master” guys coming in on your target with affective MAT 8…

The downfall of this guy is you’re spending 9 pnts. Also you will notice the possession will only work on a JACK not a WARBEAST so you are not faction limited in your effectiveness though this is definitely more of a meta downfall. But if you’re going into tournaments be aware of what your getting your self into. So if you cannot afford sports car of the drag jacks then this guy is not for you any way you slice it…

The Reaper

This model was the vary first drag jack we had and was loved by many for a long time. What this guy brings that Malic does not is a few things to take into affect.

Reach + Sustained Attack + Tusks Attack

This guys is definitely more of a melee option jack opposed to Malice being a one trick pony. I won games thanks to this guys reach alone with Sustained attack. And if I can get close enough I will take another P/S 12 attack please =) In a Malice theme list your putting a 6 pnt jack on the table with a threat range of 13” ( SPD 6 + 3 charge + 2 Terminal Velocity + 2 Reach) and until you have that range or say you take two you can “drag” out of the way anything that is in the way of your killer. And even when you get the range all you need to do is “hit” the target and POOF you get sustained attack off. Now you may ask why would I ever bother to go melee instead of Drags 14” range. Well that is simple, have you seen my RAT 5… ya… RAT 5 that’s why and when Terminal Velocity is pushing 3d6 to hit on melee attacks and all I need to land is one to trigger sustained attacks just makes me smile =)

The bad is that your sitting at RAT 5 and POW 12… This means that it’s a lot harder to get the drag off as your tend to boost both your shot and your damage to even try the 14” drag off. Sure it can be done but the deck is stacked agenst you.

I know all of you can tell me “But you can sac movement” Um I rarly run into times when I can just stay still as cryx and the jucy important targets are in the back.

The infanant Drag + kill loop

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For those of you who have never heard of this there is a trick with “Drag” models that I like to bring up. Look up Dark spot on eSkare list. Now see how it drops a targets DEF by 2? Now your Reaper is 7 and Malic is 8. Now you can not say that’s awesome alone :D now the next part man hold on to your hats. Lets say you hook shot a target… drag it in.. and kill it with your FREE melee attack. Guess what you get another attack… This means if you can keep pulling this off then poof as long as there is something with in 8” of your Reaper/Malice means you will keep killing. Welcome to the infinite kill loop with Reaper/Malice. The hard part is finding the right models to do this with. They need enough HP or armor to survive the harpoon then make sure they die on the face smash soon to follow.